Reflections: Lake Michigan shaped the Fox River Valley’s past—and is shaping its future, too – Shaw Local

During most winters, we keep hearing all about the “lake effect” snow that is being dumped on our friends over in Michigan and Indiana. And during the rest of the year, the weather forecasters almost always make sure to note the day’s temperature will be “cooler by the lake.”

Virtually every day, the effects of the big lake to our east are brought home to us, even though for those of us out here in the Fox River Valley it is often only through news videos and weather maps on our television screens that we realize what’s happening.

Historically, Lake Michigan was the freshwater highway the first explorers of northern Illinois used to penetrate the rich—and then unknown and mysterious—Midwest. Like a slightly curved knife blade, the lake thrusts hundreds of miles directly south into